


Count Me Out, Count Me In, I’ll Be Bouncing Back Again

by CaptainAwesome242



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Background Case, Blood and Injury, Case Fic, Character Study, Eric-Centric, Family Fluff, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Major Character Injury, Ohana, Season/Series 06, Stabbing, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-27 14:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17768393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAwesome242/pseuds/CaptainAwesome242
Summary: After being attacked on a case, Eric begins to realise just how far he’s come from the troublemaker he used to be to the man he is today, and just how big his ohana has become





	1. I'll Take the Hit But Not the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> There aren’t nearly enough fics about Eric so I thought I’d take a stab at doing one, I hope I’ve done him justice.
> 
> I’VE NOT CAUGHT UP ON SERIES 9 SO NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS PLEASE!! :S
> 
> Timeline is around early series 6
> 
> Main title and chapter titles taken from Bounce by Bon Jovi, which I thought was a fitting song for Eric
> 
> Chapter 2 will be up soon

_“Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame, you give love, a bad name,”_  

Charlie Fong winced as the bass thrummed through his chest, rattling his ribcage and pounding through his head. He was surprised the trembling windows hadn’t shattered yet; the van didn’t normally have to take this kind of punishment.

Beside him in the front seat was his young colleague, Eric Russo, who could only just be heard singing along over the raucous noise blasting from the speakers. Fong shook his head. Of all the new recruits he’d ever mentored, Eric was certainly the most... comfortable in his own skin. Most newbies were reserved and quiet as they tried to be as unobtrusive and professional as possible, respect oozing from them in tangible waves. 

Now, it wasn’t that Eric was disrespectful, he actually seemed to hold Fong in quite high regard and he was eager to learn all he could, he just felt free to be himself; an excitable ball of energy with a mouth that ran like a waterfall. He said what was on his mind with little to no filter, much like his uncle Detective Danny Williams, and Fong wondered if it was a trait typical of those native to New Jersey or if it was a just a Williams family thing.

Most of the time he found Eric’s straightforward, confident manner refreshing but at the moment, with his ears ringing almost painfully, Fong was regretting his decision to let him have full control over the music.

He turned the volume down to a more tolerable level. 

“Hey, man, what are you doing!?” Eric complained, cutting himself off mid-word and reaching for the volume dial. 

Fong smacked his hand away, “No, I’m drawing the line, I want to still be able to hear when we get to the house,”

Eric scoffed, “It wasn’t that loud,”

Fong took his eyes off the road long enough to throw his mentee a sour look.

“Okay, so maybe it was a little loud,” Eric conceded with a reluctant shrug, “but you just can’t play Bon Jovi any quieter, it would be disrespectful to one of the greatest bands in existence,”

Fong rolled his eyes at the other man’s reverent tone, “Yeah, and that’s another thing. Are you sure this is the most appropriate song to be listening to on the way to the scene of a murder investigation?”

Personally, Fong didn’t much mind what they listened to as long as it wasn’t deafeningly loud, he was just curious about how the younger man would respond.

“Well, the song isn’t actually about murder, it’s about...” Eric started confidently before pausing, catching the next line of song.

_‘Whoa, there's nowhere to run, no one can save me, the damage is done’_

His lips pressed into a thin line and his nose scrunched up as he cringed, “I see your point,”

Hastily disconnecting his phone from the Bluetooth, Eric switched the audio over to the radio, which was playing some kind of boppy pop number. 

“Much better,” He declared, despite the song really not being to his taste at all.

Fong didn’t really rate the song either, but didn’t say so as they were only a few blocks away from the address, and it would give his ears some time to recover.

~~~

“Steve,” Fong greeted the head of 5-0 in the entryway to the large house, “what are we looking at?” 

“Hey guys,” Steve nodded at the pair, “Home invasion. Our vic is a woman in her 30s, probable cause of death is the stab wounds she’s sustained. Her body is in the kitchen through here. Looks like the suspect entered through the bedroom window upstairs and chased her down here, used one of the kitchen knives to kill her. We think he was after her laptop, and that seems to be the only thing missing, but we’ll let you guys be the judge of that,” 

Fong nodded, turning to Eric, “I’ll set up in the kitchen, why don’t you go upstairs and see what you can find in the bedroom,”

Eric nodded enthusiastically, “Right, yes, bedroom, I’m on it,”

He took the stairs two at a time, missing the fond look shared between the two men and almost crashed into Danny on the top step.

“Hey, hey! Watch what you’re doing, huh?” said Danny, only just managing to remain upright.

Eric’s face split into a grin, “Uncle D! Sorry, didn’t see you there,”

“No, I’ve told you, when we’re at work, it’s Detective Williams, got it?”

“Oh right, sorry,” Eric apologised, though his enthusiasm never wavered, “oh hey, do you know which bedroom the suspect entered through?”

“Yeah, down the hall to the right,” Danny gestured vaguely before descending the stairs.

“Thanks!” 

Eric stood in the doorway of the cluttered bedroom, surveying the space with his eyes to identify the best place to set up his kit without disturbing the room. Picking his way carefully to a clear spot near the bed he opened up his case and snapped on a pair of black gloves. 

Right, where to start? 

Had he been given the opportunity to go through a lady’s bedroom a few years ago he’d have been straight to the underwear drawer, but now that was the last thing on his mind. It went beyond being professional; the thought just didn’t occur to him anymore. The revelation brought a genuine smile to his face.

He would never have believed he’d find a job he enjoyed so much, one that he would gladly wake up for in the morning and work so hard to do well in. Staying with his uncle that week and tagging along on that case had given him the kick up the ass he sorely needed, and had also shown him the kind of career he could have if he just knuckled down a little and actually tried. 

It had been a bit of a culture shock to actually start studying again, and the work had been difficult, but no one had been prouder than him when he became a fully qualified Crime Lab Technician. Most of his class had applied to police departments within Jersey and the surrounding states, but Eric had gone right back to where it’d all started in Hawaii. To be part of the team he’d seen first hand do some amazing work was all he wanted out of life. 

Picking up his tools with a renewed sense of purpose Eric decided to start at the window, since that’s where the suspect had started, and he thought that following his steps would be the best course of action.

The latch had been forced open from the outside, by a crowbar going by the gouges in the window ledge. A broken picture frame and a handful of ornaments lay in a heap under the windowsill. The bed lay bare and the covers were discarded on the floor - Steve had said they thought the victim had been upstairs at the time, she must have been in bed and thrown the covers aside in her haste to evade the intruder.

Eric sighed. That part of the job, the part where he had to imagine someone’s last moments, never got easier. He didn’t suppose it ever would.

A small white rug with black spots was bunched a few feet from the window, and Eric guessed it had been kicked across the wooden floor during the chase. He frowned slightly, crouching to look a bit closer. Almost disguised by one of the black spots was a small red stain that on closer inspection was revealed to be blood. 

Eric’s frown deepened, if the victim had been chased and killed downstairs how was there blood up here? Scrutinising the dark wood floor a little more critically, and from this lower angle, he saw a few more specks and spots of blood he’d missed earlier. 

Eric stood and rested his hands on his hips, trying to piece things together. The suspect had climbed in through the window, chased the victim downstairs, stabbed her, then...? Her laptop! Yes, there was a rectangular gap on her messy desk about the size of a laptop. So he’d killed her, then come back upstairs for the laptop, still carrying the knife going by the bloodstains, which trailed through the room with a regularity until they got to the rug and then... stopped? 

Another inspection of the white windowsill showed no blood. Did the suspect put the knife in a bag? But why wait to get to the window first? Unless he didn’t go out this window, but then why go up to the window if he wasn’t going to leave by it? 

It didn’t make sense to Eric until he glanced outside and caught sight of the squad cars and his uncle’s Camaro crowded into the small driveway. He wasn’t sure how soon the police had arrived on the scene, but if the suspect had seen these cars outside he wouldn’t have left by this window. But Steve hadn’t mentioned any other forced entry or exit points, which meant that the suspect had either found an unlocked door...

... or he was still in the house.

Goosebumps erupted down Eric’s arms and icy adrenaline sloshed through him unpleasantly at the thought. 

_Calm down_ , he told himself, inhaling deeply as he tried to compose himself,  _stop freaking out over a theory and find out where he actually went, do your damn job!_

Eric shook himself and went back to his investigation, squatting down to take another look at the blood on the floor. A single line of fairly evenly spaced blood spatters trailed from the door to the window, meaning the suspect either put the knife away or hadn’t left the room.

He tried to ignore the pool of dread churning in the pit of his stomach but it was difficult, especially when he noticed another trail of blood drops this time leading from the window to the corner of the room. Eric frowned in confusion, until his eyes widened in realisation. Almost fully obscured by the various posters and pictures tacked to it was a closet door. There was blood on the handle.

His breath caught in his throat at the thought he might be in the same room as a murderer. A tiny part of his brain suggested that the suspect might have just thrown the knife in the closet and left, but he wasn’t about to open it to check. Not when there were armed cops downstairs who were perfectly capable.

The decision was swiftly taken out of his hands. 

He had no time to respond as a man burst from the closet and slid a bloody knife right into Eric’s abdomen with sickening ease, yanking it free before escaping through the window. 

Eric choked breathlessly, gasping desperately for air. His lungs refused to cooperate. For a moment, the shock prevented him from feeling anything until very suddenly the blissful numbness gave way to fiery agony. Shocks of blinding pain sparked and burned like lightning through his every nerve.

He didn’t know he was falling until his back hit the floor. It was the kick to the system his body needed and he sucked in a rattling breath, panting sharply through clenched teeth.

Dimly, he realised he needed to put pressure on the wound. He flopped his hands, which were far less cooperative than usual, over the site of the injury. Within seconds they were slick with blood. 

“U-uncle D?” He managed to whisper, his voice a few octaves too high, “U-u-Uncle D!”

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying there, each second felt like an eternity, but he felt more than heard people approaching through the vibrations in the floor and suddenly he was surrounded. Eric didn’t realise he was crying until his uncle’s blurred face appeared in front of him.

“Eric? Hey, are you with me? It’s okay buddy, it’s okay, we’re gonna get you patched up,” Danny told him, his voice tight.

Strong hands pushed Eric’s own aside before placing an unbearable amount of pressure on his wound. He couldn’t hold back the strangled howl that tore through his throat.

“Sorry buddy, but I’ve gotta stop this bleeding,” it sounded like Steve.

“Ambulance is on the way,” a voice, further away. Between his own pained groans and the rushing sound in his ears he could barely hear it.

“Just hang in there, bud, you hear me?” Danny said, sounding more upset than Eric had ever heard him.

Everything was starting to become hazy, there was too much information for his brain to take in. Too many voices, all speaking at once. A hand grabbed his and another stroked through his hair. His mind was dizzy and his vision blurred. His body felt numb and agonised all at once. 

It was too much.

“Hey, no, open your eyes!” 

When had he closed them? 

His leaden eyelids refused to budge when he tried to open them, but then he stopped trying. A darkness began to envelop him like a blanket and he didn’t fight it. It didn’t hurt here, it felt safe.

He ignored the shouting all around him, the voices begging him to open his eyes and stay with them. It all seemed so distant now, irrelevant.

Eric let go of the consciousness he was barely hanging onto and allowed himself to fall into the welcoming blackness.


	2. I Know No Fear, Still Standing Tall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First comes hurt, then comes the comfort
> 
> Thank you for all your comments and kudos on the first chapter!

He was tired when he woke up.

That in itself wasn’t unusual, it was his existence every morning waking up for work, but this went a little beyond the ‘stayed up too late’ kind of tired.

He was exhausted.

Eric squinted his eyes open one at a time.

They closed immediately after.

He sighed.

Five more minutes.

 

~~~ 

 

 

When he woke up again, he managed to keep his eyes open for longer. Long enough to realise he was in a hospital.

He shifted, groaning when the action tugged painfully on his stomach.

“I’d avoid moving too much, if I were you,”

Eric rolled his heavy head towards the voice, which it turned out belonged to a young nurse.

“How are you feeling?” She asked, checking the various monitors he was hooked up to. 

“Ah, you know,” he croaked, “like I’ve been stabbed,”

“At least your memory’s not been affected,” she paused, suddenly looking nervous, “unless that was just a really lucky guess and you actually don’t remember?”

Eric’s brow crinkled, “No, I remembered,” 

She looked relieved, “Oh good! It’s just I’m not supposed to tell you until I’ve checked your memory, otherwise you might not be sure if you remember it or just think you do because I told you,”

Eric smiled, she was cute, “No, I remember being stabbed, not sure I’ll be forgetting it any time soon,”

“I bet,” she said sympathetically, making notes on his chart, “how’s the pain?”

Eric thought about it. It was nowhere near as horrific as it had been before, much to his relief, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. The medley of drugs he could feel flowing through him had taken the worst of the edge off but just beneath that was an ocean of pain, ebbing steadily at his consciousness. 

“It bearable,” he said with a one shouldered shrug.

“Good to hear,” the nurse said with a smile. 

Eric smiled back, about to ask her name when he was interrupted.

“Mr Russo? Are you feeling up to visitors? There’s some officers here to see you,” The nurse who entered was a lot older than the other girl, with grey hair scraped back from a severe face. 

Realising who she must be talking about, Eric nodded, “Yeah, that’s fine,”

She disappeared again, and shortly after Danny and Steve wandered into the room. 

“There he is, gave us a real scare for a minute there, kid,” Danny said, leaning his elbows on the rail and clasping his nephew’s shoulder while Steve hung back, watching with crossed arms. 

Eric smiled, a warm wave of reassured comfort washing through him, “Hey Uncle D, Steve,”

“How’re you feeling?” Danny asked, eyeing him critically.

“Eh, I’ve been better,” Said Eric.

“I’ll leave you to it,” the cute nurse said, “press the call button if you need anything,” 

“I will,” Eric said, flashing what he hoped was a winning smile. If the blush on her cheeks was anything to go by he’d succeeded. 

“Hey, back in the room, Casanova,” Danny snapped his fingers in front of Eric’s eyes, which had been watching the nurse leave the room.

Eric flinched and swatted Danny’s hand away weakly, “Quit it!” 

Danny smirked, but quickly grew sober, “Now what the hell happened, huh? You were supposed to just be checking out the crime scene not recreating the murder,”

“I was!” Eric defended, voice still rough and scratchy, “checking out the crime scene I mean. I had it all figured out: he came in, killed her downstairs, came back up for the laptop, and was gonna escape back out the window but I’m guessing you guys had arrived at this point cause I could see your car from the window, so he hid. I just figured out where when he jumped me,”

“Good job, buddy,” Steve congratulated, looking mildly surprised, “Fong said pretty much the same thing when he looked,” 

Eric smiled tiredly in thanks, talking had really taken it out of him.

Danny pressed his lips together, the corners turning downwards in displeasure, “Look, Eric, I need to apologise for what happened earlier,”

Eric frowned, “Nah, Uncle D, it wasn’t your fault,” 

“Yes, it was, I was the one checking the rooms upstairs, if there was someone still in the house I should have found them,” 

“Dude, it was impossible to see there was a closet there, there were so many posters all over it, I only noticed it at the last minute,” Eric defended his uncle. He didn’t blame him for what happened, it was an honest mistake.

“It’s my job to notice these things,” Danny persisted, “I should have found him in the first place, then he couldn’t have hurt you, or at the very least I would be lying there instead of you,”

“Don’t talk like that, Uncle D,” Eric protested, “it’s a good thing you’re not here, you’ve got the kids to worry about and your job, and someone’s gotta catch this guy. At least it wasn’t Fong, or one of the other guys who could solve the case. It’s better that it was just me, ya know?”

“‘Just you’, can you believe this kid?” Danny asked Steve but left him no time to respond, “Eric, listen to me, you putz, don’t ever belittle yourself like that. You just told me you had the whole timeline worked out from what you found in one room and now you’re telling me you don’t think you could solve the case? Don’t put yourself down, you’re important to your team,”

Eric squirmed slightly in the bed, blushing at the praise and looking anywhere but at his uncle. It just wasn’t something he was used to, receiving praise. With the way he’d been leading his life up until a few years ago with one poor choice after another, all he’d heard from anyone, especially Danny, was statements of disappointment, angry lectures, and commands of how to live his life right. To hear the complete opposite from the same person was heartening and confusing at the same time.

“And you’re important to me too,” Danny continued, “you’re my nephew; it’s my job to look out for you. I’m gonna need you better as soon as possible, alright? Because I’m going to need to use you as a human shield for when your mother comes to kill me for letting you get hurt,”

Eric laughed, glad for the change in topic, “Man, she is going to flip her shit,”

“Why do you think I need a human shield?” Danny asked, grinning.

“I hate to interrupt,” Steve cut in apologetically, “but we do need to ask you some questions about the guy who attacked you earlier,” 

Eric’s drooping eyes widened in shock, “You mean you haven’t found him yet? Dude, don’t let me hold you up! What do you want to know?”

Danny squeezed Eric’s shoulder reassuringly as Steve said, “You’re not holding us up, we had to see that you’re okay,”

“I’m fine,” Eric insisted, looking exactly the opposite, “what do you need to know?”

“Can you tell us what he looked like? His face, his hair, his clothes, any identifying features?”

“He was dressed all in black,” Eric recalled, “bit taller than me, tan, brown hair, umm... it all happened so fast, there wasn’t much time to look, but... oh! He had a piercing in his eyebrow, a stud. Sorry, I don’t really remember anything else,”

“No, that’s great,” said Steve genuinely, “thanks for your help,”

“Of course. Is there anything else I can do?” Eric asked eagerly, trying to sit up but flopping back down with a gasp as the action pulled painfully on his injury.

“Just relax,” Danny said, his usual sarcasm absent in the face of his nephew’s suffering. He rested a heavy hand on Eric’s shoulder, both to offer comfort and to hold him in place, “Just focus on resting and getting better,”

Eric sunk down into the pillows, closing his eyes with a groan, “I think Bon Jovi had it wrong, you know,”

Steve and Danny exchanged a confused look.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if being shot through the heart is even half as bad as being stabbed in the stomach, I think he might have been exaggerating a bit about his break-up,”

Steve sniggered but Danny shook his head, “No, I’ve been divorced, if anything he was underselling it,”

Eric only squinted sceptically.

“Right, we’ve gotta go catch this bastard. You sleep, alright? I’ll come by and see you later,”

“Alright. Hey, if you see that cute nurse can you send her back in here?” Eric asked with a smile.

Danny rolled his eyes as he left, “Sure, kid, I’ll send her in,”

Eric smiled and sighed tiredly. If he hadn’t been so exhausted he would have heard the playful tone in his uncle’s voice, and he wouldn’t have been surprised to see that the nurse who came in was the angry-looking grey-haired woman.

 

~~~ 

 

Something poked his hand.

He ignored it. It was probably nothing.

It poked again, twice in quick succession.  

His hand twitched to try and evade the poking, but it only made the poker more persistent. 

“Charlie, leave him alone, he’s supposed to be sleeping!” 

“But he’s been sleeping for aaaaages!” 

“Danno said he needs to sleep for a few days to feel better,”

“But that’s forever!” the volume and general upset in Charlie’s voice skyrocketed. 

“Charlie, shush!” 

Eric cracked his bleary eyes open, unnoticed by either of his cousins. He’d definitely just had a recent dose of painkillers because he felt all floaty and sleepy, but if he didn’t stop this little argument before it started it would escalate quickly. Charlie was stood within reach, so Eric poked him in the ribs where he knew the boy was ticklish.

Charlie yelped in surprise and jumped away, before turning back to the bed with a toothy grin, “Eric!”

“Hey, little man,” Eric murmured, voice rough with sleep, “hey Gracie,”

“Hey Eric, how do you feel?” Grace asked, concern ageing her young face.

“Ah you know,” he began, planning to end the sentence with something jokey like ‘the usual’, but his focus evaporated in an instant, and the sentence was left hanging.

Charlie quickly filled the silence, “Look what I drew for you!”

Eric blinked in surprise as a piece of paper was thrust into his face, he took it and held it back at a more reasonable distance. It took him a moment longer than normal but he eventually realised that the picture was a family gathering. In the middle was himself sporting a rather impressive quiff, to his left was Grace with very long hair, to his right was Charlie and to Charlie’s right was Danny; both of them with wacky yellow hair. The corners of his mouth quirked into a wan smile.

“Do you like it?” Charlie asked, nervous at Eric’s extended silence.

“Are you kidding? I love it, thanks buddy,” Eric went to ruffle his cousin’s hair, but just ended up resting his hand on top of his head. Man, these drugs were really taking it out of him.

Danny came in not long after, laden with an assortment of drinks and snacks from the vending machine. He sighed when he saw his nephew awake, “Guys, I told you not to wake him up, he needs to sleep,” 

Grace said, “It was Charlie,” at the same time Charlie said, “But he’s been asleep for ages, and I wanted to show him my picture!” 

Danny looked about to scold one or both of them so Eric intervened, turning the page so his uncle could see, “Look at this masterpiece, Uncle D, gonna get this framed when I’m out of here,”

Danny didn’t say anything for a moment, his frustration that Eric had been woken up giving way to relief that he seemed to be alright, if tired, and happiness at the smile Eric’s compliment had put on Charlie’s face. He sighed dramatically, and smiled. 

“Honestly, I leave the room for five minutes,” he grumbled, putting the snacks down on the bedside table, “alright, what do you think bud, should we put this up on the wall so Eric can see it?”

“Yeah!” Charlie cheered, jumping up and down.

“Indoor voices,” Danny reminded him, taking the picture and taping it up a few feet along from the window, which Eric had only just noticed. It was dark outside. 

“There we go, he can look at it whenever he wants. Now say goodbye to Eric, we’re gonna go and let him get some sleep,” 

Charlie rushed up to the bed first, throwing his arm over Eric’s chest and resting his head on his shoulder, “Bye Eric! Feel better,”

“Thanks, little man,” Eric held him briefly before he ran off.

Grace hugged him with slightly more care than her brother had taken, “I hope you get well soon,”

“Aww thanks Gracie, give me some sugar,” she kissed his cheek and he grinned like a fool, “ahh yeah, that’s the good stuff, I’ll be all better in no time,”

Grace rolled her eyes but smiled happily at him anyway.

“You two go wait outside for a second, I just need to talk to Eric,” Danny ushered the kids into the hall before perching on the edge of the bed, “sorry about them, I told them not to wake you up,”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, woke myself up,” Eric defended his cousins.

Danny looked sceptically from the droopy eyes to the dark circles to the washed out complexion, “Uh-huh. Anyway, I’ll let you sleep, I just wanted to tell you that we caught the guy, he’ll be going away for a long time,”

“Phew,” Eric breathed, “no one else to hurt, did they?”

“No, just you. So get better, alright?”

“Yes, sir,” Eric murmured, eyes closing against his will as sleep rapidly overcame him.

 

~~~

 

“Eric, I’m so sorry about what happened, I shouldn’t have sent you up there alone,” Fong apologised when he came to visit the next day.

Eric peered at him from behind the card from the crime lab team, “Nah, don’t sweat it. It’s not your fault,”

Fong shook his head, “I should have checked,”

“Checked what? The room 5-0 already said was clear?” Eric asked, brows raised in disbelief, “its not your fault man. And I don’t blame 5-0 either. It’s like I told Uncle D, there’s no way anyone would have seen that closet on a first glance,”

“You know, your uncle told me you had the room all figured out, that’s pretty impressive,”

“Not really,” Eric shrugged bashfully, eyes returning to the card in his hands, though that only made the warm feeling in his chest grow.

Both sides of the card were jam-packed with notes and well wishes from the lab team, squished handwriting overlapping as people vied for space. He hadn’t worked with any of these people for long and others he’d only been introduced to on his first day, but all of them had taken the time to write him a message; there wasn’t a single one that had just left a signature. He’d never felt this level of acceptance in a job before, and the thought made his eyes tingle with unshed tears.

“This is,” he stopped before his voice broke, coughing awkwardly, “this is, uh, this is neat,”

Eric cursed himself, that lame word didn’t cover the half of his gratitude, but Fong smiled fondly anyway, “You’re welcome. We’re all excited for you to be back, it’s no fun without you around,”

 

~~~

 

“D! You told me no one else got hurt!” 

“Yes, that’s because I needed you to relax, I didn’t need you stressing just because this lunatic can’t take care of himself,” Danny punched Steve lightly on the arm, the one that wasn’t in a sling.

“I can take care of myself, Danny, I’ve been doing it for years before you showed up,” said Steve, relaxing in the chair and propping his feet up on the bed.

“And its a wonder you’re still alive,” Danny said, gesticulating wildly as he walked around to the other side of the bed, “when you think that running in front of an oncoming car is a good thing to do!”

Eric’s eyes widened in shock as his head whipped between the two men either side of him, looking like he was watching a very aggressive tennis match.

“The suspect was getting away, what do want me to do?” asked Steve.

“What do I want you to do? I want you to not run out into traffic, that’s what I want you to do. My son is four, and even he’s figured out that you don’t cross the road when cars are coming, although I don’t know why I’m surprised since I’m fairly convinced that you never graduated kindergarten,” Danny ranted.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Are you done?”

“Yes, I am done,” 

“Good,”

Eric continued to glance between them, “Is it like this all the time with you two?”

One of them said, “Yes,” and the other said, “No,” but Eric had no clue which was which.

“You two need a therapist,” he declared.

“We have one,” said Steve.

Eric raised a surprised brow, “Well then you need a better one,”

“You made a good move to pick a job where you don’t have a partner, otherwise you would be handcuffed to a moron for the rest of your career,” Danny patted him on the shoulder, as though he were passing on sage advice.

“No, it was a good move to not become a cop, that way you won’t have this one breathing down your neck and telling you you’re doing everything wrong,” Steve said, cocking a challenging eyebrow at Danny.

“But your best move,” interrupted Chin as he, Kono, and Lou entered the room with a bunch of balloons, “was to not get a job at 5-0, and save yourself the constant headache of working with these two,” 

Eric grinned as Steve and Danny were rendered speechless and gratefully accepted the giant card from Kono. As Danny and Steve continued to bicker he read the messages inside the card before placing it with the others, trying to fathom what he’d done to earn the many praises and affection expressed inside them.

 

~~~

 

After a few days he was allowed to go home.

Danny had brought him some clothes the night before so that he could be dressed and ready to leave when he came to pick him up the next morning. It had been a bit more of a struggle than he’d anticipated, but he felt a lot better being back in his own clothes.

He gathered up the collection of cards on the bedside table and tucked them down the side of the duffel bag, vowing to keep them safe and treasure them forever, but the balloons he left bobbing along the ceiling. Although, on second thought he changed his mind, untying one of the ribbons from the bed and securing it to the bag - he’d need something to keep him occupied when he was confined to Danny’s couch.

Charlie’s picture had turned into a small art gallery, most of the wall dedicated to drawings of Eric doing various activities, from surfing in the ocean to riding a giraffe - that one was his particular favourite. Taking care not to tear them he removed the tape and stacked them up before sliding them down the side of the bag with his cards. He’d been serious before and was going to frame them all around his tiny apartment once he was allowed home.

A knock on the doorframe had him glancing over his shoulder and he smiled, “Hey Uncle D,”

“Hey bud, you ready to go?”

“Sure,”

Danny slung the bag over his shoulder and threw an arm around his nephew, offering support and keeping him upright. 

Eric was exhausted by the time he got back to the car, and though he was excited to get home he was surprised by the unexpected sadness at leaving the hospital. It wasn’t that it was especially nice there or anything, and he certainly didn’t want to repeat what had put him in there in the first place, but he was grateful for it all the same for showing him just how valued he was here in Hawaii.

The ride to Danny’s passed in a blur, and for a moment he didn’t realise they’d arrived.

“You all good?” Danny asked when Eric made no move to get out of the car.

“Yeah, I am,” Eric answered honestly, “glad to be home,”

Because that’s where he was. Home is where the family is, and he has a pretty awesome ohana in Hawaii.


End file.
